Chalkbeat: Election means more conversation, not much change in directionAmelia Pak-Harvey with Chalkbeat Indiana joins Daybreak INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Meetings of the Board of Commissioners for Indianapolis Public Schools may be livelier in 2025, but don’t expect to see a massive change of direction. That’s one post-election conclusion from Chalkbeat Indiana’s Amelia Pak-Harvey. She covered the board races leading up to the Nov. 5 election. Four spots were up for votes, though only three of them were contested. Alissa Impink ran unopposed in District 4. The at-large and District 1 & 2 races featured a now-familiar choice: Candidates who had the backing of charter school advocates against those with support from traditional public school educators. The charter-backed candidates took two of the spots handily. Dee Thompson more than doubled the vote totals of her two At-Large rivals, and Ashley Thomas grabbed a convincing win in District 1. The District 2 race was much tighter, with Gayle Cosby topping Hasaan Rashid, earning Cosby her second term as a commissioner. “She previously served on the school board, decided not to run again, then came back this time around and had significant teacher backing from the state teacher’s union PAC,” Pak-Harvey said on Daybreak. “She is a pretty vocal person.” Cosby’s apparent comfort with conflict when necessary leads to Pak-Harvey’s assessment that board meetings will likely be lively in the year to come. When Cosby first won a spot on the board in 2012, she was seen as a voice for the charter school movement, but has since largely distanced herself from that perspective and now has the backing of the Indianapolis Education Association. The election results appear to leave intact the strength of the charter-favorable candidates, but Pak-Harvey says the re-introduction of Cosby will at the very least make the meetings interesting. “In the grand scheme of things, it kind of remains to be seen if there would be much more change, but there would definitely be more discussion,” she said.